Category Archives: before and after

Post navigation

Remember back in 2011 when my living room was all solid colors? I was in the middle of going through my clothes and realized I had no patterns in my closet. Then looked at my living room and saw a striking resemblance. To refresh your memory, and save you the trouble of clicking that link:

Well. Welcome to 2013:

My first step toward enjoying my living room was making those curtains, that I used to love because they brightened up the whole room. (When the whole room was navy furniture and a gold rug. Doesn’t take much to brighten that…). I need to change them now, because of the rug, but I loved those curtains for a good long while.

Then I painted the chest/coffee table that my sister-in-law gave me. (It’s supposed to be ombre but it takes a discerning eye to see that it is four different shades of yellow. It sort of just looks two different shades. Yes, that kills me a little but I am squashing that emotion in a very healthy way as far as squashing emotions go).

Next up was the rug. We got old Goldy our first year of marriage and it served us well. Many a spit-up has been caught by that rug. This year she also absorbed a good amount of puke when the stomach bug of 2013 came through with a vengeance. (And then came around and got me AGAIN, which I did not think could happen but apparently can.)

Once the stomach bug came through I knew I was done with that rug. It is like when you decide you need a haircut and then cannot go through a single day without thinking about how badly you want that haircut and how terrible your hair looks and feels in the meantime. (And then you have a great hair day the day before your appointment and it’s like “well… maybe I shouldn’t cut it after all…). For the longest time, I could not stop thinking about how badly I wanted to get rid of that rug.

So then this multicolored dream of a rug came on Joss&Main and I decided to go for it. It is a good thing that Joss&Main has time limits on their sales because otherwise I would still be considering this decision, a month later. Instead I pulled the trigger and got it, and have been happy about that decision ever since.

Let me tell you: You have not fully lived until you have rolled up your old rug and unrolled your new one while three kids are “helping” underfoot. Notice all of the furniture that sits on top of that rug. No, it was not easy. There was a lot of sweat and maybe some cursing. But about two sweaty hours later, we all walked around on our new (much softer) rug and felt like a million bucks.

Next task is to take down the curtains and replace them with something simple. I am thinking plain white- nice and airy and it draws the eye up and *blah blah decorator jargon that sounds like I know what I’m talking about*.

Once again, mostly so you can see how I color coordinate my kids’ clothes to my rug, and how the Monkey lines his trains and cars up neatly in a row. He is not a stickler for detail in many things, but every once in a while the trains MUST be lined up, just so:

Remember that vague goal to keep my desk clear during the month of July?

Ha. What a joke.

(At least when I took this picture, it was just one layer of stuff. Now picture another two layers of stuff on top of that stuff. And picture me, sitting on the couch and too lazy to get up and take a picture of it).

Somehow I can have entirely clear surfaces throughout my whole downstairs…but it all falls apart when it comes to the desk. It is the dumping ground for mail, any electronic gadgets that need charging, hair thingys for Chicken, and things-that-don’t-belong-on-the-dining-room-table-so-please-move-them-before-you-set-the-table. (But my kids are setting the table! So- huzzah!).

I have tried “systems”- see those file thingys on the wall? Such a cute little system FAILURE.

I opt out of junk mail.

I have containers to corral hair ties and headbands.

When I see someone about to put something there that doesn’t belong, I throw things at that person. Heavy things, so they really get the message that I mean business.

None of these things have successfully kept this desk clear.

I think my next step will be acquiring a roll-top desk to just hide it all.
Blerg.